FHS Athletics Director Jon Summer firmly believes the development of leadership skills is one of the most important outcomes of a student's educational experience.
To that end, Summer provided a two-day seminar last week to more than 20 captains and other leaders from Farmington's nine fall sports teams.
The six-hour forum covered four primary topics: 1) What is leadership?; 2) What does it mean to be a leader?; 3) What type of personalities are needed to be an effective leader?; and 4) What is the team life cycle and what skills are necessary in moving through its stages?
"I have wanted to develop some type of leadership training for our student athletes," Summer said, "and this was a pilot for achieving that goal.
"I think peer leadership can be a very difficult task and nothing is more unfair than holding someone accountable for something they're unprepared for. It is my hope the training provided some awareness of what leadership is and motivated the participants to practice and work hard at developing the essential skills of an effective leader."
Summer added he would like to make the training mandatory for anyone interesting in serving as a Tiger team captain and eventually make it available to all student athletes. He also hopes to add members of the coaching staff and other professionals as presenters.
From a brief survey of the participants in the pilot training, it seems to have been well-received. Jordan Bridges of the girls' volleyball team appreciated all of the subjects covered but was especially pleased to learn more about the leader-follower relationship.
"I think that was the most important thing for me in my role as a team leader," she said.
Girls soccer player Shelby Calhoun said she liked the discussion concerning having the courage to go and talk to teammates when things weren't going so well, while diver Terra Klima said just being able to listen to the thoughts and ideas of others about leadership was valuable.
"The thing I learned that was most important was to never think you are going to look stupid when you come out and say something," football captain Tyler Grubb said. "As a leader you can't be afraid of things like that."
"The most important part for me was just learning my role as a leader and how a leader serves as a role model for other team members," boys soccer player Justin Thelen said.
Cheerleader Julie Tang focused on the subject of communication and offered some suggestions for future training.
"I think it was very beneficial but I would like to see it spread over more days or even be a zero hour class required for captains," she said.
